Tattooists targeted in bikie crackdown

By Laura Hegarty and Melissa Maddison

Jason Bird is not a member of a criminal motorcycle club, in fact, he's not a member of any motorcycle club but he says his tattoo business is being targeted by police as part of their crackdown on bikies.

Police have visited Jason Bird's tattoo parlour three times in the past week as part of their crackdown on criminal motorcycle gangs. (ABC Multiplatform:Laura Hegarty)

Mr Bird says police have been through his shop three times in the past week, taking photos and questioning staff.

"They want to know if we are related to any bikies or related to anyone that's associated with bikies.

"So what they're doing is they're coming in and getting all our details and they just keep asking us the same questions over again."

He says the checks are disruptive and unnecessary.

"I've only got a certain amount of time to tattoo so they're coming in for half an hour to an hour at a time and it takes that time off my client's time.

"I think it's all to do with the Gold Coast and Brisbane and all the stuff that's been happening down there. They must have a lot of bikies owning tattoo parlours down south."

But Mr Bird says that's not the case in Mackay.

He says the police have even requested that he take down the trophies in the studio because they have an affiliation with the outlawed groups.

"The bike clubs actually hold all the tattoo shows that have always been to raise money for charity and that sort of stuff.

"All the trophies that we've got from old tattoo shows, they've all got their names on them as well... so they're classing that as an affiliation."

As part of the crackdown on criminal motorcycle gangs, owners of tattoo studios and artists must be licensed and reapply every three years.

Mr Bird says the new requirements are costly and discriminatory.

"Because I own the tattoo shop, I have to have an operator's licence and then they have to get a tattoo licence as well as that and every three years we have to reapply for it.

"So we have to go through the whole process again, we can't just renew it.

"It's going to cost us a lot of money to go through this whole process of getting licensed and a lot of people will be out of a job because a relative might be associated with somebody from a motorcycle club.

"So even people that have been doing it for 20-30 years they can be stopped right in their tracks, even though they've got nothing to do with it."